Reporting missing persons to a national database now the law in Pennsylvania - pennlive.com

Pennsylvania now has a law in that will give future families of loved ones who go missing a little more hope of finding the answer they seek.

Gov. Tom Wolf signed legislation that will require police to collect a DNA profile of a person reported missing within a week of receiving a missing person report or beginning to investigate one, whichever is sooner, and turn it over to state police for submission to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System or NamUs.

NamUs is a national clearinghouse for information about missing, unidentified or unclaimed person cases and intended to be another tool for helping to solve these cases. In enacting this law, Pennsylvania joins 10 other states that have laws requiring submission of this data in missing person cases. Connecticut’s law enforcement officers do this as part of their statewide protocol when it comes to missing person cases.

The bill, sponsored by Reps. Lynda Schlegel Culver, R-Northumberland County, and David Millard, R-Columbia County, grew out of conversations with constituents who had a family member go missing. Schlegel said hearing those families’ stories is heart-wrenching.

“There’s no closure on what happened,” she told PennLive. “You can’t say, well, they’re deceased. Here’s their death certificate. They are missing. So it takes years for families to resolve all of these issues. It’s really difficult thing for anybody to have to go through. We’re hoping that this gives them hope that they can cling to.”

Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne County, who championed the law in the Senate, said, “Far too often in the news we hear tragic stories of individuals who have gone missing, leaving behind their families with unanswered questions. It is thanks to the families who have lost loved ones, yet channeled their pain into advocacy for helping others, that Pennsylvania now becomes the 11th state to participate in NaMus. The legislation will certainly help to provide law enforcement with a secure and necessary tool, while also giving hope to the numerous families and friends who want and deserve answers.”

Norma Jean Fritz-Yatsko is a mother who found herself in that situation on Aug. 11, 2015. Her oldest son Jesse Lee Farber, known as Rex, disappeared at the age of 29. He was last heard from while in Schuylkill County. Culver credits Fritz-Yatsko with making her aware of NamUs’ existence and bringing to light the fact that reporting missing person’s DNA to this national database wasn’t required.

Upon hearing about the bill signing, Fritz-Yatsko said, “That’s awesome. I’m so happy. I don’t think that there are a lot of families of the missing who know the importance of this.”

It gives families like hers the knowledge that there is another tool that could help resolve their missing person case even after law enforcement’s manpower and resources are redirected to other cases, she said.

Fritz-Yatsko is determined to market Pennsylvania’s law to other states in hopes of building on the information that gets entered into the database and educates more people about its existence.

After her son’s disappearance, she made searching for answers about what happened to her son her main focus. Fritz-Yatsko even founded a nonprofit called Wheres Jesse to keep her son’s name and face in the public eye while using it to advocate for other families who live with a loved one who disappeared.

She said as part of their investigation, police put her son’s DNA profile into NamUs and only later did she learn that this wasn’t a requirement in missing person cases.

“The more I learned about it I thought this is silly that it’s not even mandated. What if Jesse’s body was found and they didn’t report it to NamUs? How would it ever match up?” she said. “Proof just kept piling up how important this law is and how much it is needed.”

Jan Murphy may be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy.

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source: https://www.pennlive.com/news/2022/02/reporting-missing-persons-to-a-national-database-now-the-law-in-pennsylvania.html

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